Overheating

>My bmw 326i (e36 - 1997)
>gets hot on the way to the shop, short drive
>wont start
>leave it to cool down
>drive home
>notice its getting hot af and is red when i get home.

Ive popped the hood and noticed a few things immediatly.
You can see the stain from whatever ended up in the fan for a start.
To the right of the engine, where the hose meets that metal part and then the box, its leaking.......somthing.
Also, on the left hand side of the engine i saw some kind of thin fumes coming out.

Can anyone tell me what those parts are?
They arnt labelled in the manual for some reason.

Oh, and the coolant reservoir looks like its empty, or at least nowhere to be seen near the "Kalt/Cold" marker.

Have i blown my head gasket?
Is car kill? :(

Heres the stain if that helps,
Its a greeny-bluey white colour

this isnt a problem ive encountered before, and i dont really know what im looking at

Im hopeing some kind fellow could give me a quick rundown, even if its just identifying parts so i can research

Pic

It seems to me like the cooling system has bled itself dry via the leak or somesuch.

The oil dipstic says its ok, low, but still in the band.
Looking inside, looks pretty fuckin empty.

I dont know that to make of this

...

Im not a mechanical man, someone come call me retard already

no you're just low coolant idiot

take reservoir cap off (while engine is cool), there will be a little hole on the inside, coolant will be dripping out of it while the engine is at idle, if you grab the throttle cable and rev the engine a little then it should start pissing a healthy amount, not at you and it won't make it a mess

if you rev the engine and nothing comes out or it is still just dripping (or if it wasn't dripping at all) then you are low coolant

pour coolant in until it starts pissing out of that hole and into the reservoir

you should not need to bother with the bleeding screw or anything else, this is the easiest and most simple way to make sure your coolant is filled, everywhere else on the internet will tell you a bunch of nonsense shit and overcomplicate things

but after you know you have enough coolant then monitor for leaks

common leak spots would be a crack at the bottom of the reservoir where it connects to the radiator, you will have to replace the whole radiator

or the thermostat housing if it is still using the plastic thermostat housing, you should replace that with a metal one anyways

and obviously check the radiator hoses too

Now you have a good reason to swap this shitty fucking engine

Cheers dude, whats the score if thats happened?
Dismantle and replace?

The car will start btw, but i dont want to do it again if i can avoid it.

The M43B16 doesn't have VANOS

there is no VANOS on these engines

It's an old BMW. The whole cooling system needs to be replaced. Not even memeing

Thankyou

I will investigate all of that,
I cant see underneath atm to confirm if theres a crack because its getting dark
Its dripping with engine off, quite a lot, theres a bit of a mess underneath

No joke, tempted, but pretty skint atm
Might do if this is kill and my hand is forced

Im not clear on the difference

my engine in question is a 1.6ltr if that makes a difference to distinquishing

The *whole* thing?
I assume that shit is expensive

not the whole thing, mostly just the plastic thermostat housing and plastic waterpump impeller

but firstly top off your coolant and check for leaks, worry about the other things later

Now,
The top pic that user posted, is laid out as described in my manual

but in mine, the battery and brake/powersteering fluid(?) are swapped round.

Does that mean anything when im trying to identify parts elsewhere, or what version engine i have?

Mainly the water pump and thermostat/housing but replacing the radiator wouldn't be a bad idea.

Thanks user, will do
ill get on that

Can anyone tell me what part this is?
Im pretty sure its where the leaking is

top pic is from the compact/hatchbacks, your battery is in the trunk

Batteries here mate
its even got its own little leather satchel thingy

to check leak is easy though, fill the radiator and see if it empty in the morning.

that's the airbox/air intake. There's no way water comes out from it...

Is this a RHD drive car?

Oh right!
its soaked under there, ill have a look in the light and try and find out

yes

Wrong

That's why everything is flipped around up top.

you can open the airbox and see it. it looks like this, you can clean it or replace the filter. Water rarely goes there except when rainy.

Ahh right, that makes sense

brother!
well, mines only 2 door

thankyou, ill have a look just to be sure.
i guess somethings definitely fucked it thats leaking lol

i think you mean 316i

if your car is overheating im pretty sure it's your waterpump and thermostat, its extremely common with the M43/M44 engines.

Could also be the water pump.
Had this issue with my GFs car, would fill it up every other say with coolant just to have it all dump out after the car was shut off.
The bad pump was spurting coolant everywhere which would get onto the pulley causing smoke to billow out in the front of the car (by the reservoir.) So I wouldn't factor out a bad water pump either.

There's no such thing as a E36 326i.

Lol, everyone else knew what i meant
Whoops

Ill check those though, thankyou

>My bmw

>Im not a mechanical man
>Owning a BMW

I hope you have deep pockets then, otherwise you're going to learn how to fix it.

>buying a bmw
>expecting a sub 2l bmw engine to be any good
>expecting a bmw not to break down like the piece of shit it is

nice going there lad, shit, a friend of mine has a an e92 or whatever the fuck it's called, 2 door cope, 2.5l l6 engine and he's still fixing shit on it. it will probably never be as good as it's supposed to be, also:
>2.5l l6
>barely above 200hp
>no lsd

somehow you faglords sperg over these and shit on the toyobaru even though the japs built a superior machine
>2.0l h4 so better for taxes in europe and nipon land
>200hp
>lsd
rekt
>inb4 slower than LE 300HP MINIVAN xD xD
>inb4 JUST BUY A MOOSETANG HAHA xDDD

get absolutely destroyed by superior jap tech

Actually the E92 2.5L makes 216hp and the GT86 only just makes 200hp.

yes. now read that again and again for as many times as necessary to get it into your head.

a 2l N/A engine makes 200hp, a 2.5l N/A engine makes 216. which one is better?

>protip: the toyobaru engine is better and doesn't go to shit because of bullshit over-engineering.

Look, you stupid retard. You have a leak from somewhere near your waterpump (most probably your waterpump itself) that's squirting onto your fan that's spraying it around.
Take it to a mechanic.
>Have i blown my head gasket?
If it wasn't blown before, it sure a shell would've running the coolant low and the temperature into the red.

That's the MAF you idiot. And it has nothing to do with anything.

>which one is better?
The one with smooth torque delivery at mid rpm.

>hp/L is the only gauge on wut kar iz gud

you can fix that problem with a tune, just as my friend has to fix his stupid VANOS.
not what car, what engine.

>not what car, what engine
Same shit you fucking mouth breather.

>deep pockets are needed for a 25 year old base model 3 series

I'm sorry you're retarded, I hope your mother loves you because no one else will.
it's not the same thing, we're talking about engines.
A car is not just an engine in case you haven't figured that out.

...

nobody spergs over base model E92's.
For Toyobaru money you can get a good E92 335i and tune it to 400hp easily

>when you fuck up and move the goal posts back
kek

not such a great deal in europe where you pay out the ass for displacement, try again.
maybe try reading. no goal posts were moved. nothing has been changed from my affirmation lad. I'm sorry you're triggered that an e36 lemon and sub 3l and non M bmws are complete shit lmao

>memes are to be taken literally
Seeing as you're retarded, I'll be a little more literal with you.
>hp/L is the only gauge on wut injun iz gud

Even better, try get your hands on a pressure tester

see if you can rent one somewhere

it's an important one friendo :^) stay mad

>it's an important one friendo
as a metric on its own, it's meaningless. Yes, I'm mad.

mate I'm just trying to trigger people. I like bmws and cars in general.
All cars have strong and weak points.
I want all of you to stop being triggered by autists like me who spout memes for no reason.
I want Veeky Forums to be a place where we can talk about cars without getting assblasted because of this type of shitposting.

Wee lads, wasnt expecting a minor shitstorm over this.

For the record, i payed not much for the car, and it only has 70k on the clock. I would love to get a superior nippod rwd, but in the uk that isnt happening. Not without breaking the bank at least.

Shitposting aside,
If the head gasket is blown, the car wouldnt start would it?(idk, genuinly asking) because this will still start.

I finnish work early today so im going to top up with water and check what anons have suggested.

Ive booked it into a garage, i was hoping to try and get a bit of a heads up before going in.

And to they guy harping in about needing deep pockets;
What makes you say that? Are the part notoriously expensive or somthing?

And no, i didnt buy this car thinking it was some kind of powerhouse, i know this thing isnt fast.

But its fun as all hell, and i dont want it to be kill :(

If the head gasket is blown, does that mean the car is kill?

Yup, already know that now.
You would know that i know too if you read the thread. Idiot.

Car will start with blown headgasket. However, there will be easily identifiable indicators, such as blowing a lot of smoke out the exhaust, and antifreeze mixing with the oil.

>try again
No big difference between 2 or 3 liters in terms of taxes especially if you can have a car 2 times as fast.
Your toyobaru apologies have obviously failed, you try again.

read

ahh righto, there wasnt any smoke, and the oil wasnt milky (im told thats an indicator)

would there be any other indicators?

Have you tried maintaining your vehicle, and checking fluids more than once every blue moon?